What you walk away with

A summer is one of the most valuable things a college student owns, and you get about five of them.

So here is the full accounting of what one of them buys at Timber-lee, counted honestly: the money, the lines a hiring manager can read, and the parts that do not fit on a resume.

What lands in your bank account

Stipend roles start at $275 a week. Hourly roles start at $7.25 an hour. Either way you are paid every two weeks.

Housing and meals come with the job, and that is the part most people undercount. For eight weeks you pay no rent, buy no groceries, and commute nowhere (the walk to the dining hall does not count). More of what you earn is still there in September.

Training runs May 23–29, before the first camper arrives, and covers program leadership, camper care, and safety protocols. Whatever your department requires, you learn it here.

What a hiring manager reads

Employers are unusually explicit about what they want. In the National Association of Colleges and Employers Job Outlook 2026 survey, 85 percent said they look for evidence of teamwork on a resume, and teamwork, problem-solving, and communication topped the list of skills they scan for. They were equally clear about what convinces them: the example underneath the claim.

Eight weeks here is nothing but examples. Six lines you can write in September:

• Supervised and mentored 7 youth ages 7–17 for 8 weeks, responsible for their safety around the clock
• Supported individuals through stressful situations and built trust quickly
• Planned and led daily programs for groups of up to 120
• Adapted plans on the fly to keep a group engaged
• Collaborated with a team of 70+ staff to run a full-day schedule
• Followed safety protocols and was accountable for every camper's well-being

Researchers at the University of Utah have been tracking camp counselors through their early twenties. What they find is that the job hands young adults genuine leadership experience early, in a setting where the responsibility is real.

What no resume line captures

The American Camp Association lists the harder-won part differently: work ethic, empathy, open-mindedness, and an honest awareness of your effect on other people. For a lot of staff this is the first job where somebody genuinely depends on them, and it shows.

You find out what you are like at two in the morning with a homesick nine-year-old. You find out what you do on the Tuesday it rains for six hours and the schedule has to be rebuilt by 10 a.m. Those are useful things to know about yourself at twenty.

What you bring home to your family

Eight weeks of responsibility for other people's children rearranges how you move through your own house. You come home better at noticing the quiet one. You come home patient in a way that is difficult to learn anywhere else, because at camp you need it by Wednesday.

You also gain a second family, and that is not a figure of speech our staff use lightly. Seventy-odd people arrive in May not knowing each other and spend eight weeks living, eating, and working inside the same few hundred acres. Some of them are still in your life a decade later. One of our returning cabin leaders had a mother on staff here before her.

What happens to your faith

At some point on a Thursday night, a nine-year-old is going to ask you a hard question about God and wait for your answer. Explaining what you believe to a child is the fastest way to discover how well you understand it yourself.

Research on Christian camps points in the same direction. Camps contribute to what researchers call an owned personal faith: the kind a young person keeps because they have examined it and made it their own. Staff tend to arrive expecting to hand that to campers and leave having done the work themselves.

Chapel, cabin devotions, and a staff community that prays together are the structure. What you do inside it for eight weeks is yours.

Eight weeks, starting May 23

Training runs May 23–29 and camp ends August 8. Housing and meals are included. No experience with kids is required, and every summer's staff includes people who have never done this before.

The application takes about fifteen minutes, and a real person reads every one.

Source links

• NACE Job Outlook 2026 Spring Update, key resume skills: https://www.naceweb.org/talent-acquisition/candidate-selection/the-key-skills-employers-seek-on-college-students-resumes
• American Camp Association, Camp Counselor Skills Are Professional Skills: https://www.acacamps.org/blog/camp-counselor-skills-are-professional-skills
• University of Utah Health, Lasting Impacts of Summer Camp: https://uofuhealth.utah.edu/newsroom/news/2020/08/summer-camp
• Botting, Lawson, and Carr (2024), Beyond the Camp High: The Contribution of Christian Summer Camps to the Development of Owned Personal Faith: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/07398913241262332